In most cases I recommend swimming a variety of speeds in a swim workout for the best swimming workout. Once a swimmer reaches a certain general level of fitness, the swimmer must do more to increase the challenge of the swim workout. Adding more distance or duration is one way, but at some point that results in diminishing returns, and how much time does someone have in a day to swim?
Mixing up the paces or speeds within a swim workout helps to increase the challenge or stress of that workout without increasing the duration. A swimmer can shorten the workout but increase the total stress of that workout and get more done in less time.
Swimmers may also find that doing some very short, very fast sprints with a lot of rest on a regular basis (4-10 repeats of 10-20 seconds of swimming with 40-60 seconds rest between each swim) will develop increased strength and power. These short sprints can be done almost every day.
To start, you should mix up your workouts a bit. Try doing some of them the way you are now, and try doing some of them (one or two each week) with some shorter intervals mixed into the workout. Every third or fourth week take a few extra days off for extra recvoery, or shorten all of your workouts for the recovery week by 25% to 75%.
What could you do to increase the stress or speeds within one of your workouts? Here is one example:
- 10-15 minutes warm-up with your regular swimming routine speed.
- 4 x 50-meter (or yard) swims with 10-20 seconds rest.
Swim the first one with an easy effort, then each subsequent repeat with more effort than the one preceding it; I call this descending, and in this case, with four repeats, I would call it descending 1-4 or abbreviated as des 1-4. - 1-5 minutes with your regular swimming routine speed.
- 4-10 x 25-meter (or yard) swims with 40-60 seconds rest between each swim.
Do these at the best possible effort. Start with four, and increase the number you swim each week by one or two until you reach 10, then go back to four and try to do them faster. - 1-5 minutes with your regular swimming routine speed.
- 1 x 400-meter (or yard) swim at a fast but sustainable pace; rest about 20-seconds afterwards.
- 1-5 minutes with your regular swimming routine speed.
- Repeat the above 400 meter faster, 1-5 minute easier until your workout is done.
Be sure to end with an easier to swim as a cool-down.
